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Sew what! Skirts. 16 simple styles you can make with fabulous fabrics, by Francesca Denhartog and Carole Ann Camp. Published by Storey publishing. distributed in Australia through Capricorn Link.

Do you really want to make your own clothes? Do you have a fear of zippers or always wanted to know how to draft your own patterns? Then I recommend this book for you. I love to make my own clothes, not like my grandmother however who would spend weeks making tailored jackets or fitted blouses or lacy evening wear (she even made her own underwear!). My style of sewing is more like if it can be finished in a day then I will do it - if not then the chances of it getting finished - ever - are really diminished. So sewing simple skirts has always been a bit of a fad of mine. And while I know how to draft my own patterns using old favourites, and I while am not adverse to a zipper or two I certainly could use a few tips and tricks to make the process easier.

For all of those reasons and others I really enjoyed this book, and I know it will be a useful edition to my craft library. This book takes the mystery out of waistbands, splits, darts and pleats.

All the patterns are based on a couple of basic skirt designs, the A-line, the half-circle and the tiered skirt. As I am a totally a visual person - the choice of fabrics used in the styles really make a difference for me, and taking that and the simplicity and design of the skirt into consideration, my favourite patterns that I am definitely going to try include the breezy wrap skirt based on the a-line, the front pleated skirt in Asian inspired fabric, and the tourist tablecloth a-line skirt. There are no patterns as such in the book, rather recipes for making your own pattern to fit you. If this seems a little daunting, don’t worry it really explained very well with good illustrations and directions.

For the most part the design of this book is great - really eye-catching with a practical spiral binding to allow it to lay flat where you need it while sewing. Its slightly retro styling is funky, there is a bit of incongruity, I thought, with the choices of fabrics for some of the skirts. The books seems to be aimed at the young - young-ish, urban chic, but some of the patterns were a little country and others a little old fashioned and seemed out of step with the rest of the book.